Investigation finds tons of illegal fireworks stashed across the country, few regulations on disposal

The cache of seized fireworks was inside a rusted-out, World War II-era bunker in a Honolulu hillside. The explosion that killed the five men working inside the bunker was so spectacular the federal investigators still aren't positive about what happened.

What they know about the 2011 accident, they say, is that unless the federal government takes action, this could happen again in any number of communities across the United States.

There are similar magazines -- filled with confiscated explosives -- all over the country. In California alone there are "hundreds of thousands of pounds" of them, says Amanda Johnson, a U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigator who studied the Honolulu explosion.

"They are being stored in bunkers and magazines across the state," Johnson said. "And they're just accumulating,"

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Another board investigator, Dan Tillema, says it's impossible to determine the scope of the national backlog of fireworks awaiting disposal.

"Even in California, we probably have a low estimate," he said. "There are a lot of jurisdictions in the country where fireworks are legal and they still do confiscations. There are areas in Colorado where in local jurisdictions, depending on weather [or the threat of wildfires], it becomes illegal."

The Chemical Safety Board has voted to recommend a spate of safety requirements and other regulations and oversight related to fireworks disposal. Right now, there are few if any such policies at the federal, local or industry level, the board said.

Had such rules been in place two years ago, federal investigators say the five federal subcontractors who died in Honolulu would still be alive. On the other hand, investigators say it's fortunate more people didn't die: Workers transported the fireworks and loose explosive material on a publicly accessible road. A sixth worker who had stepped outside of the bunker to make a phone call survived.

The men worked for Donaldson Enterprises Inc., which specializes in disposal of unexploded ordnances. Though investigators say Donaldson had no experience working with fireworks, it was tapped by a Virginia-based federal contractor to destroy a backlog of fireworks seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The fireworks came to Hawaii from China and had been mislabeled for consumer use when they were actually far more powerful.

But federal investigators found that Donaldson Enterprises had no experience with fireworks, and the dangerous method they cobbled together for disposal was barely vetted.

The workers were soaking tubes of explosives in vats of diesel fuel before cutting them open. In the process, a fine layer of explosive dust known as black powder began to collect on the magazine floor, helping to create "essential elements for a mass explosion," the Chemical Safety Board later determined.

Federal investigators still aren't sure exactly what happened. One theory: a metal chair rolling across a layer of explosive dust may have caused the spark that ignited the explosion.

"It was ignited by something in the magazine," Johnson said. "We can't pinpoint exactly what because of the amount of destruction."

Though the Chemical Safety Board describes a widespread lack of regulation and oversight, there are already rules related to fireworks on the books.

The Environmental Protection Agency's criminal investigation unit also probed the Honolulu explosion and found the company operated without the necessary hazardous waster permits. That investigation led to a criminal indictment of Donaldson Enterprises and two of its employees, for whom a trial is set to begin in April.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also handles disposal of some fireworks, but a spokeswoman couldn't give specifics on the agency's regulations or oversight.

The agency doesn't keep data on how many pounds of fireworks it confiscates each year, but that disposal is often "a partnership" with local communities, Colbrun said. In some cases, that kind of partnership can involve volunteers.

One such volunteer was killed during an improvised fireworks disposal in Kansas last July. He and others were trying to get rid of leftover fireworks that didn't go off as planned in a town Fourth of July display.

"They put fireworks in a pit to burn them," said the Chemical Safety Board's Johnson. "Someone had a chain of three aerial shells and they lobbed it into the pit. It discharged out of the pit and it killed someone who was standing 50 feet away. It was a method put together without any guidance and it unfortunately resulted in a fatality."

Federal agencies like the Treasury Department, which is involved in contracting and subcontracting processes, have until mid-July to respond to the Chemical Safety Board's recommendations. Treasury Department officials declined to speak on the record, but an individual who would only agree to be identified as "a treasury spokesperson" said the department is "aware of the final report" and "reviewing the recommendations."

In the meantime, advocates for reform say the issue is about public safety, not just workplace safety.

In Hawaii, "the road right outside of the magazine was open to all of the other people who rent storage facilities there and they could have been driving by at any moment," the Chemical Safety Board's Tillema said. "In Kansas, anybody could have been involved. There were no restrictions. It definitely can affect members of the public."